The Russian alphabet isn’t nearly as hard to learn
as people think. It is one of the most phonetic alphabets ever created
– one sound corresponding to one letter and vice-versa.

The basics of the alphabet can be learned in an
hour or two if you think of the 33 letters belonging to 3 categories.
(We’ll stick to capital letters in printed script for now)

1)Letters
that look and sound the same in both the Latin and Russian alphabets.

2)Russian
letters that look like Latin « our » letters, but have a
different sound

3)Letters
that are entirely different.

1)Letters
that are the same

А К М О Т

2)Letters that look familiar, but sound different:

ВЕНРСУХ

For example, a Russian 'B'
corresponds to a 'V' sound

Russian Equivalent

B V

E Ye

H N

P R

C S

Y Oo

X H
(the spanish «j» or German «ch»)

Can you read this word? РЕСТОРАН

Yes, it's 'Ryestoran', or
restaurant.

How about МЕТРО?

METRO of course and МЕТРis "meter"

and if you know that "и" is an "ee" sound

Can you read АМЕРИКА?
Of course, it's "America"

ТЕАТР
theater ТЕКСТ
text
ТАКСИ taxi

3)Letters that are
different

This is more of a challenge, but the beauty of Russian is
that it's almost entirely phonetic. One letter corrsponds to one sound
and vice-versa (almost always)

Б Г Д Ё Ж З И Й Л П Ф Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

Б this a a
"B" as in БРАТ"brat" (brother)Г this is
a"G"
as in ГОРА"gora"(mountain)Дthis is a "D"
asin
ДИСКОТЕКА"diskotyeka"(discotheque)Ё this is
a"YO" as in ВСЁ"vsyo"(everything)
this letter is never the first in a
wordЖthis
is the
lastsound in the word "garage" which is pronounced almost identically
inRussian - ГАРАЖЗ this is
a"z"
as in ЗИМА"zeema"(winter)Иthis a the
"ee"sound as in ИСТОРИЯ"eestoreeya"(history)Йthis
is like a
short 'y' sound that only occurs after a vowel as in МОЙ"moi" (rhymes with 'boy') (my)Лthis
is an "L"
asin ЛАМПА"lampa"(lamp)Пthis is a "P"
asin
ПАРК"park"(park)Фthis
is an "F"
asin ФАКС"faks"(fax)Цthis
sounds
like"ts" as in ЦАР'tsar'(tsar)Ч this
islike the "ch" as in ЧЕК"chek"
(check (US), cheque (UK)Шthis is a "sh"
as
in ШОКОЛАД"shokolad"(chocolate)Щthis a
a
double sound - as "sh" followed by a "ch" as in БОРЩ"borshch" the
famous Russian beet soupЪthis has no
sound
on its own but represents a pause after the preceding consonant - we'll
ignore it for now - it's rareЫthis is
like
theshort 'i' sound in 'big' as in СЫН"sin"
(son)Ьthis letter has
nosound on its own, but it softens the preceding consonant (almost like
aslight 'y' sound after it) МАТЬ"mat' " (mother)Эthis is an
"eh"sound as in ЭХО"ekho"(echo)
this letter is very rare compared to the similar letter ЕЮ this
is a
"you"sound as in ЮГОСЛАВИЯ"yougoslaviya"
(Yougoslavia)Яthis is a "ya"
asin ЯАНВАРЬ"yanvar'"
(January)

Now let's practice:(Bear in mind that these words aren't
pronounced exactly as in English)